54 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



Breeding habits : The Lesser Gray Shrike is a 

 late migrant to Europe, not reaching its breeding 

 grounds even in the south before the middle of April 

 and in Germany not before the beginning of May. 

 The favourite breeding haunts of this Shrike are in 

 cultivated districts, in the vicinity of gardens and 

 plantations ; in some localities it prefers the shrub- 

 covered sides of rocky slopes, amongst which are 

 scattered small trees. The bird makes itself very con- 

 spicuous, sitting on the tops of bushes and trees. It 

 appears to pair for life, and will yearly return to a 

 favourite nesting place. The nest is generally made in 

 a fruit or olive tree, a poplar, an oak, or a mulberry, 

 usually from ten to fifteen feet from the ground. It is a 

 large, bulky, cup-shaped structure, composed externally of 

 roots, twigs, coarse grass, straws, and stalks of plants, and 

 lined with wool, hair, feathers, and some aromatic plant, 

 such as lavender or thyme. The nests vary a good deal 

 in materials. Some are made entirely of an aromatic 

 plant, others almost completely of cudweed ; whilst in 

 Prussia Herr E. Hartert states that the nest is invariably 

 lined with these strongly-scented plants. If the nest 

 is menaced by predaceous birds or animals the parents 

 become very bold and pugnacious. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Lesser Gray Shrike are from four to 

 seven in number, and vary considerably in size and 

 shape. They are pale bluish-green in ground colour, 

 spotted and blotched with olive-brown, and with under- 

 lying markings of pale greenish-brown. The spots 

 normally are somewhat large and irregular, and in 

 exceptionally fine examples the markings form a zone 

 round the larger end, the spaces between the larger 

 masses of surface colour being filled in with the smaller 

 underlying spots. Some eggs are very sparsely spotted, 



